Patton ’77 allegedly shuts down Class of 1977 Facebook group

The Facebook group of the Class of 1977 was shut down on April 7 after an alumnus posted a controversial article from The Atlantic about “The Princeton Mom,” according to Robert Gilbert ’77.

The article, which had been posted several times, was deleted several times by an administrator, and while the administrator responsible for the action is unclear, there is speculation by those interviewed that it was Class of 1977 president Susan Patton. Some members of the original group have already created a new closed group.

Patton did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

According to an email obtained by The Daily Princetonian in February, members of the Class of 1977 had previously created an online fundraiser for the Sexual Harassment/Assault Advising, Resources and Education program in order to express solidarity with victims of sexual assault following what they perceived as offensive remarks by Patton.

In the process, alumni used the Facebook page to help facilitate and accumulate donations to SHARE.

Patton wrote on March 6 on the Facebook page that it is illegal to solicit donations through Facebook. Because of this, the page was expected to be shut down anyway, said Class of 1978 president Gwen Feder,who has been monitoring the developments with the Class of 1977.

Patton posted on the page on March 6, claiming that the actions of the Class of 1977 through Facebook jeopardize the class’s tax-exempt status.

Mark Nelson ’77, a leader in the fundraising project, said he had been in contact with University officials in the office of Annual Giving, the Office of the Vice President for Campus Life and University Health Services in the process of fundraising, and that none of them had ever suggested there was anything improper about this method of fundraising.

Nelson said that he personally stands by the fundraiser’s legality.

“I don’t believe there’s any chance that we broke University rules in raising contributions to SHARE on Facebook,” Nelson said.

The tax-exempt status of theClass of 1977 is not in jeopardy, University media relations specialist Min Pullan said.

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However, at Patton’s request, the University Office of General Counsel is reviewing the fundraiser’s legal behavior, Feder said.

University General Counsel Ramona Romero deferred comment to Pullan.

Feder said Patton’s explanation for allegedly shutting the group down is “so that the administrators can make some decisions about what should or should not appear there.”

However, Feder said she believes legal adherence isn’t truly the primary force driving Patton’s claims.

Feder said she thinks Patton sees the SHARE campaign of the Class of 1977 “as a threat to her role as class president and, perhaps, as ‘the Princeton Mom.’ ”

Julie List ’78, who coauthored an op-ed in Februaryin the ‘Prince’ about Patton’s media appearances, said she believed Patton had shut down the page because of the perceived affront to her of fundraising for SHARE.

“In order to deal with this humiliation, she is looking for a way to repudiate what they’d done,” List said. “The fact that members of her class virtually turned against her by creating a fundraising campaign to support SHARE is very embarrassing for her.”

The class created a new Facebook group with a description stating that it is a “new venue to keep communicating while the other [group] is ‘under review.’ ” After one day, the new group, titled “We ROAR! Let’s keep talking … ” had 116 members, compared to the roughly 220 members of the original Class of 1977 group.